Rakhee Ghelani

Tag: Culture

  • Melbourne: The Things I Have Missed

    Melbourne: The Things I Have Missed

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    I have been visiting Melbourne, which is home, for the past few weeks. I still have a couple of weeks to go before returning to Mumbai, but as I sit here on a cold, rainy day I am thinking of all the things that I have really missed here. Some that I knew I was…

  • 15 Minutes in Bollywood: Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

    15 Minutes in Bollywood: Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

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    It really had to be only a matter of time before I became a Bollywood star… after all I have been in Mumbai for over a year now. So when I got a phone call a few weeks ago asking me if I wanted my Australian accent to be famous, how could I refuse? To…

  • Bollywood: Where Heroes Can Be Villains

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    There is an interesting thing I have observed in Indian culture, if someone is admired, lauded or dare I say worshipped, for some reason they seem to be above the law. They can do as much wrong as they want, but very few seem to care. Worse still, if you are poor, then your life…

  • Cambodia: Spending Time in The Beauty of Angkor

    Cambodia: Spending Time in The Beauty of Angkor

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    Siem Reap in Cambodia is one my top 5 travel destinations in the world.  For anyone who has been there or seen images of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and the surrounding region I am sure it is not hard to understand why. The historic sites of Cambodia are simply stunning. I am a temple junkie,…

  • Remaining a Child in the Eyes of a Parent

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    I recently had a friend drop in to visit me at home whilst my father was visiting me from Australia.  My friend came in and I offered him a seat on the couch, my father was working at the dining table.  For a short while he stopped to chat with us, but then went on…

  • Tiffins Galore: My Visit to Spice Box Tiffin Service

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    As part of my day spent with the dabbawalas, I visited Spice Box who cook, pack and send off over 500 tiffin meals a day to hungry office workers all over Bombay.  They use the dabbawalas to make the deliveries, and therefore have to have all their tiffins packed and ready to go before 10am in…

  • Geek Post: The Fascinating Lean Process of The Dabbawalas of Mumbai

    Geek Post: The Fascinating Lean Process of The Dabbawalas of Mumbai

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    The Dabbawalas of Mumbai are legendary. These 5,000 people deliver over 200,000 lunches a day to the workers of Bombay, and have done so for almost 125 years. It is not so much what they do that is remarkable, but the process in which they do it. As someone who has spent years of my…

  • Indian Culture, Apologies and Blame

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    For a long time now I have had this niggling observation about Indian culture, but wasn’t sure if it was just me, isolated incidents or something I was imagining. I now think it is a cultural thing, Indians don’t seem to be able to apologise for anything, but seem to be very quick to blame…

  • Cultural Misfits: Where do I fit in?

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    I am learning Hindi and have found the experience particularly challenging given the rather diverse cultural history I come from ( something I have discussed a bit previously here). My grandparents were born in India, my parents in East Africa and myself in Australia. Growing up, a mixture of four languages were spoken in my…

  • Are women really impure in the eyes of god?

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    In my last post (here) I talked about how the temple is the centre of the community in India.  However I have now found myself banned from entering.  Yes, banned from the temple….. what terrible faux pas did I make to be prohibited from entering the temple? I bled. The most natural thing in the…